On Friday, July 24, 2015 at 4:09:06 PM UTC-4, wrote:
As always thank you all for all of your help. I did a bit more homework yesterday and traced the whole circuit. This house is new to me and I've got a bunch of projects running in parallel. Anyway, here is how it is laid out:
Power line arrives on the roof and it is fed into the following box. I thought that this was a circuit breaker box but it turns out that it has a single breaker. I assume it cuts off all power.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzE...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzE...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzE...ew?usp=sharing
Yes, that's the main breaker/disconnect for the house.
This box runs back to the roof and later back down into the original box that I asked about. In the picture below this line is coming from the top into the electric panel.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz...WM3Ty1PaTcyZUk
And the wiring according to the labels are as follows:
1. Spare 2. empty
3. empty 4. Pool (must be the pump)
5. empty 6. empty
7. empty 8. empty
9. empty 10. Pool (must be the other pump for the solar heater)
11. empty 12. Pool lights
13. PLAGS 14. Spa
15. PLAGS 16. Spa
17. sub 18. AC
19. sub 20. AC
There is another panel inside the house that has the labels for Oven, microwave, dishwasher, etc. It looks fairly new. And it must be this panel that is being fed by terminals 17 and 19 above, I think.
So in order to replace the breaker I think that all I have to do is shut off the power at the first box and replace the breaker simply adding the white line anywhere to the neutral bar on the right, yes?
Yes, that;s correct.
Just a few more questions assuming the above is correct:
1. would you recommend testing this panel once I shut off power? I have a volt meter and I take it that I could test the points between the right bus and the right neutral. If the read is 0 then I'm good to go?
I'd test between both incoming hots and between each incoming hot
and the neutral. Obviously whatever loads are all connected should
go dead too.
2. can you guys please confirm if the breaker that I got is the right one? I don't recall anyone confirming explicitly.
It's for a Square D Homeline panel and that's what you say you have
and you're replacing a 15A with a 15A, so that's it.
3. If the install goes to plan and the light works, is there any way to test if the light is grounded? The light is under water so pardon my lack of imagination but I'm not sure what else can be tested.
If the breaker trips when you push the test button, it's working.
The light should be grounded properly from when it was installed,
but the GFCI doesn't even need a ground to work. It works by
comparing the current flowing out on the hot to the current returning
on the neutral and if they aren't equal, it trips. The problem
you might possibly find would be that it trips when you turn it on.
If there is any moisture in the light, in the connection boxes, etc,
and there is a little leakage current, it will trip, as it should.
The code was also changed a few years ago so that pool pumps
also need GFCI, but that only applies to new installations,
you don't have to update what you have.
I plan on getting an electrician for some other projects but for now I think that if the first panel shuts off power I can do this project myself.
Thanks!
What is that PLAGS circuit on the two breakers on the lower left
that I pointed out before? It's a 240V circuit, with no ground
and each breaker is separate. Presumably it was some old circuit
that was wired into the new panel? I'd get a handle tie to
connect the two breakers. You don't want someone working on it
turning only one off and thinking the load is no longer energized.